One of the comments I have heard Ad nauseam from my D&D buddies is that TROS wizards are vastly over-powered. My experience after GMing TROS for 10 months suggests otherwise. My groups sorceress is certainly less annoying (or disruptive!) than any high level D&D wizard I have GMed. Our TROS sorceress spends her SP very frugally, seldom casting more than two spells per game day, and I have yet to see her blast a room full of enemies, unlike my last 3.5 group's wizard who threw oceans of magic as often as possible!!! If a group of TROS adventurers could be considered the competent equivalent of a seasoned D&D PC party (sans magic goodies), does the TROS wizard truly eclipse his D&D counterpart, and if so, why? Are we the victims of "bad press"? My impression of High Level D&D wizards is that they are poorly armored magic gatling guns.

If a group of TROS adventurers could be considered the competent equivalent of a seasoned D&D PC party (sans magic goodies), does the TROS wizard truly eclipse his D&D counterpart, and if so, why?

I think that a â€œstarting-levelâ€ TRoS wizard does indeed eclipse a D&D wizard of of about lvl 10 (Iâ€™m referring to old, 36-level-D&D, the only one Iâ€™m familiar with) spell for spell.

The D&D wizard has quite a few impressive damage-dealing spells, but they are not very useful against people of his own calibre â€“ saving throws et al. A TRoS wizardâ€™s spells are as efective against a great hero as against a nameless peasant. And TRoS wizards are of course more versatile, and they can create spell effects that can have a major impact upon the gaming world, in the ways a D&D wizard canâ€™t. A TRoS wizard can level a city, no problem.

But I still donâ€™t think that he is overpowered. I am quite certain that such complaints come mostly from players hailing from a background of D&D and similar games who only think about playing as a group of balanced adventurers. TRoS is not played in quite this way.

In D&D-like rpgs, picking a fight is not risky â€“ it is easy for the player to gauge the degree of risk involved. TRoS combat is not like that; here, an unlucky roll can kill a great swordsman. Playing TRoS is always about answering the question â€œWhat is it worth killing and dying for?â€, a question answered by use of the SAs; charactersa re well advised to rather avoid fights without SAs firing as overly risky.

Sorcery is very similar. TRoS sorcery is as deadly as TRoS melee, but just like TRoS combat comes with a high risk of death if one enters it frivolously, so does TRoS sorcery come with a high risk of aging massively and being knocked out at the most inconvenient of moments. Like TRoS combat, the system is also about the question what it is worth to take the risk of sorcery.

So â€“ a TRoS wizard will be powerful, but he will also be frugal in his spellcasting. He doesnâ€™t throw his spells around like his D&D counterpart. He only casts spells when something he cares about deeply is at stake. My experience with TRoS sorcery is that the wizards donâ€™t act like the typical D&D wizard at all. They are no bookish weaklings in robes and pointy hats throwing around arcane jargon and spells alike. Most of the time, you will not even notice that he is a spellcaster. But in those few instances he does work magic, boy, does he shake the very ground with it.

I remember how D&D wizards were a hybrid between suporting artillery and medical help; somehow, they were always in a supporting role to the action types. Thatâ€™s also something you wonâ€™t find a TRoS wizard do. Heâ€™ll not cast spells to support others, heâ€™ll cast spells because doing so furthers his own most vital interests.

So Iâ€™d say that a TRoS wizard can do much more than a D&D wizard, but that he will do less. A D&D wizard uses his powers like a hose, sprinkling everything with it all the time. A TRoS wizard uses his powers seldomly, but with surgical precision. Effect for effect, he eclipses his D&D counterpart. But then he casts only few spellsâ€¦

In a given session, a D&D spellcaster will work far more magick, often simply because he can. A TRoS sorcerer, in the same situation, will spend a lot of effort looking for ways to get around using magick entirely.

Another way to put it: in the time it takes to cast the first spell of the combat, the TRoS wizard is going to melt his opponents into greasy sludge while the DnD wizard makes a half-assed approximation. For the second spell, they might be about on-par with each other. But for the third spell... the DnD wizard is still going strong, while the TRoS wizard is saying "Oh crap. That wasn't enough? I'm so hosed," if he's even conscious at all...

After my sorcerer aged a year over the course of a few days, I larned to reign that in REAL quick.

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